Yarn unravelled

2011-02-04T21:13:00.006-06:00

My latest obsession is knitting podcasts. Who knew so many knitters were making podcasts?! So far I've spent most of my time listening to the Knitmore Girls and that is the best way for a knitter to get through a work day. Seriously if you haven't listened to them then you are in for a treat. They have several segments of which On the needles, Review and When knitting attacks are my favorites. They have so much knowledge to share and they are so charming that they keep me coming back for more.

You can look forward to more podcast reviews from me in the future. Happy listening!

And here is a little picture of my daughter enjoying our rare central Texas snow.

Relax while you knit

2011-02-01T12:52:00.001-06:00

10 ways to relax while you knit:

I love knitting but when I started it wasn't very relaxing. Also I am a working mom of young children and as you probably know this brings plenty of challenges. I've been referred to a physical therapist twice in the past 3 years. Once to solve a frozen shoulder and another time to address neck tension so bad that it caused long-term headaches behind my eyes. Unfortunately my tense knitting was not helping matters; so I had to re-learn how to knit in a relaxed manner. Here are some of my techniques and I hope they help you.

1. Make sure you have everything you need within your reach (ex. pattern, scissors, yarn, waste yarn, errata, row counter, row markers, cell phone, baby monitor, etc)
2. Sit so that your head is supported; relaxing your neck muscles will immediately relax your shoulders
3. Sit so that your arms are supported and you can easily see your knitting with your head relaxed (I use pillows propped under my elbows.)
4. Relax your jaw muscles
5. Read through your pattern before you start knitting and look for potential gotchas. Highlight increases and decreases, repeats and circle the numbers for your size.
6. Pretend that you are holding something fragile alongside your needles. I like to pretend I'm holding a bird egg along with my needles; this helps to loosen my grip.
7. Stretch your neck, arm or hand muscles
8. Use the best tools/yarn you can afford for your project (Bamboo needles with a cotton yarn that has no stretch and doesn't move nicely across the needles will make your knitting a tense affair.)
9. Relax your eyes; if you are working stockinette or some other easy stitch let your vision get a little soft.
10. Don't knit when you're hungry or feeling rushed; if you have a few minutes and want to do something knitting related browse through a knitting magazine or read the next step of your pattern

Let me know what you do to stay relaxed while you knit. I'd love to hear your comments.

My Matagorda shawl

2010-10-05T20:33:00.008-05:00

This is a very simple triangular shawl I knit from 3 balls of Noro Chirimen in a green colorway. The colors remind me of our summer trip to the beach so I named it after the beach-town my family lives in.
(This photo is of the wrong side of the shawl. I was excitedly taking pictures with my new camera and didn't notice that the shawl was backwards. I'll get a better picture up soon.)
I've never had a shawl before and I wasn't sure how often I would use it. I've worn it twice in two weeks.

Do you wear shawls?

Currently on the needles

2010-10-05T09:01:00.003-05:00

Weekly unravelling

2010-03-08T00:38:00.004-06:00

So what's unraveled here lately? Me for one. And my baby's new sock for another. First here's why I'm unraveled.

I knew that having a toddler and an infant would be tough. I knew this because I'd read a book and heard a few stories from other parents, that makes me an expert right? But wow, it did not adequately prepare me for this, one of the greatest challenges of my parenthood so far (I know, it's only been 2 1/2 years sigh). My infant is now 8 weeks old and most of it has been a blur. But one thing that stands out is how my sweet 2 and 1/2 year old turned into a bitter teenager in such a short time. It seems like nothing my husband and I do is right; she yells at us and tells us to "let me be" or "just go away". Where did she learn this language anyway? Her new nickname is the "obstructionist" because apparently her resolution for 2010 was to impede whatever it is that Chris and I are trying to do, walk through the hall, open the bathroom door, and it goes on and on.

So I've been thinking of how I could explain the juggling act to my girlfriends. And then life provided a good example for me. So I'm changing Violet's diaper on the changing table. And Olivia insists on getting into the room to stand on her stool and watch. As I'm cleaning up one of the poopiest diapers Vi has created in her new short life, I mean there was poop all the way to the poor girls chest with an impressive amount pooled up in her bellybutton, Liv has put her hands on every part of Vi that I'm trying to clean or dress. I can't pick up Vi to remove her poopy onesie without prying Liv's hands off of her. Then I've got to remove Liv's grip from Vi's arm just so I could put on her clean shirt. It's amazing that neither Liv nor I ended up splattered in poo. And the walls were still clean too! Now that's some juggling.

Now for the sock's unraveling. Like I mentioned in my previous post I'm adapting a pattern for an adult-sized sock to fit an infant. So I guessed at the number of stitches to cast on. I thought well if I cast on 60 for me surely Vi's foot couldn't require more than half of that! So I'm knitting happily along, and watching the Oscars (hello George!) when I get far enough with the foot portion to want to see the cute little sock on my chubby girl. I had tried the leg section on her a day ago, before I worked the heel and thought that it was just big enough. Well I can't quite figure out what changed but I was wrong! I couldn't even get it over her ankle tonight. I am a stubborn Texan and so was tempted to "make it work" and then realized that having a screaming baby was not what I wanted to sacrifice in order to see some knitting success. So I made my husband admire the sock, I even made him touch it, he rolled his eyes and muttered something about me being a little scary, before I ripped it all out. I'm pretty sure he thought I was losing it but I just haven't had a lot of knitting success lately and had it in my mind that this project would be a slam-dunk. And now my cold has blossomed into something finer and the paranoid side of me thinks I must have pneumonia and pink eye. Oh I'm not sure when I'll have the fortitude to start the sock again, is it wise to knit with an itchy, swollen eye?

Violet's Baby Socks

2010-03-07T14:59:00.004-06:00

A few nights ago I realized that my baby has only one pair of socks that fit her. So I grabbed some sock yarn from my stash and started looking for a baby sock pattern on Ravelry. There were a lot but I didn't have time to search for one written for two circular needles. Since I was anxious to start knitting I decided to use the pattern I have and adapt it to fit an infant.

I really like the Adam's Rib His and Hers Socks pattern. It's the pattern I used for the first pair of socks I knit and it is very easy to understand. Also it is written for two circular needles which suits me because I am all thumbs with double pointed needles.

Cherry, cherry and Adios 2009 (a bit late)

2010-02-23T21:43:00.006-06:00

2009 was a bitter sweet year and I thank my lucky stars that it's over.
In the bitter category:
In January I found out my company was essentially up for sale and my job stability was highly questionable. Hello stress!
In March I learned that my sister needed surgery.
In April I lost one of my grandmothers.
In April I hit the extreme fatigue and sickness that comes with the first trimester of pregnancy.
In July and August I spent every spare moment looking for a new job (while preggers).
In August 95% of my friends and co-workers were let go.
In September my daughter started preschool and therefore was sick almost every day for the rest of the year.
In October my daughter got the swine flu and I had to leave the house for 5 days to avoid getting the flu while pregnant. We'd never been apart before and this was extremely difficult for us.
Also in October I started having regular contractions and was put on bed rest.
In November my husband had major surgery on his nose and sinuses. Goodbye bed rest.
In December I was 9 months pregnant and quite the grinch.

In the sweet category:
My sister is well and the results of the surgery were all good.
The rest of my family is now healthy and my husband can breathe better than he has in probably 10 years.
I kept my job although working in a mostly empty building is quite depressing and humbling.
And of course expecting our second child brought great joy.

And now for knitting! I have been doing quite a bit considering the year I've had. But unfortunately I've been too busy or sick to post about any of the projects. So here is a picture of my daughter Liv in my first successful project of 2010, the Felicity hat.

I cast on 60 stitches and did a few less increase and decrease rows to fit Liv. This is Malabrigo worsted in a striking red. Liv picked out the color herself.

My first cables

2009-09-02T23:44:00.005-05:00

I picked the Asymmetrical Cable Hat in Leigh Radford's One Skein book as my first cable project. I bought the yarn in February of this year because it seemed we were going to have a cool spring. I finally started knitting it at the end of August for my daughter Liv. The cables were surprisingly easy once I got the hang of it. The largest cable was 10 stitches and some of the stitches were a little too tight to easily knit. But I made it to the end and was very happy with the results. I wish the pom pom was a little fuller but Liv is pleased with it. I think she will enjoy wearing it this fall, in fact she's already been wearing it around the house, despite our record breaking heat wave.

Olivia's Christmas stocking

2009-09-02T23:10:00.003-05:00

I finally got my very busy pro photographer husband to take some pictures of the stocking I made for Olivia last year. I've started on one for him and I'm about one quarter finished. Calendar check...it's September and I've got loads of knitting and crafting projects to get done too! He keeps saying that he's going to have another Christmas with the ugly blue fuzzy store bought stocking. I can't let that happen!

Still kickin

2009-06-26T15:19:00.001-05:00

Well, gosh, thank you, thank you.
(I'm imagining my friends welcoming me back to the blog world. - humor me)
Thanks to all of the friends that have hung around while I've been out of blogging commission for a few (okay, several) months. I won't go into all of the details that have kept me away but I'll just say that it's been one hell of a year and it's not over yet! I will however divulge one secret that has been a major contributor to my absence. That secret is a little bundle of joy that I'm expecting to deliver in January of 2010. I'm (knock on wood) just a few days shy of finishing my first trimester. I'm still quite low on energy but nothing like the extreme fatigue that hit many weeks ago.
So what have I been working on craft-wise? Well for some reason along with my appetite for food, my appetite for any project that required thought flew out the window when I got pregnant. So I started a Christmas stocking for my husband. It's a kit with stamped felt, sequins, beads and thread and only requires that I be able to read instructions and thread a needle. So it won the battle over all knitting projects cause gosh darn it I still struggle with gauge and it hurts my brain.
Life is still nuts around here so I can't promise that my return to blogging will be full steam ahead just yet. But I just wanted to pop my head out there and say "Hey, I'm still kickin".

Updated links...more to come

2009-03-24T21:53:00.002-05:00

I've been really behind in updating my links (like months behind) and have much more updating to come. Baby's crying...gotta run. But in the meantime please check out some of the great blogs on the right.

2009-03-22T12:37:00.006-05:00

I have a lot of unravelling going on but I will save that for my next post (it has to do with my Easter projects). Right now I'm going to post the promised pictures of my Calorimetry v2 and a few of the v1 flop. V1 is blue and V2 is red. You can see how the V1 is too wide. For V2 I cast on 90 stitches and it worked out perfectly.

Crafty toddler

2009-03-18T06:27:00.005-05:00

Some of my favorite childhood memories involve crafting. I made clothes for my dolls, tents out of sticks and leaves, and ironed Holly Hobby patches onto canvas bags (included iron marks from leaving the iron in one spot for too long). My daughter is almost two years old and I've got the itch to start crafting with her. One of the great things about having a child is getting to relive your favorite pastimes. So this past Saturday we did our first craft project together.

It was pretty simple but loads of fun; we made plant markers for the garden. I had some colored wooden pieces in tongue depressor, heart, star, circle, square, oval and other shapes and sizes. I laid out a waterproof table cloth on the floor, poured out the bag of wooden pieces and got some gel glue. My daughter was the designer. When she was drawn to pick a piece I asked where she would like it to go. She would lay it down on a stick and I would then glue it into place. After a short time she wasn't content to just "design" and she got the urge to do some gluing for herself. Gulp. Toddler + glue = ? I checked the glue lable and it washes off so I encouraged her to play with it. Also her hands were not strong enough to squeeze much glue out of the bottle. She got the sense that she could do it herself and I didn't have to scrape her glued pants off the floor. After the pieces dried I used a permanent marker to write the plant names on them. I would definitely do this project again. She had fun picking out the pieces by colors and shapes and I had fun encouraging her creativity. And I think she will enjoy putting the sticks in the garden by the plants she and her daddy are growing.

Weekly Unravelling

2009-03-16T12:35:00.001-05:00

(or "knit one bitch two" according to my husband)
I've unravelled the Murano scarf at least 4 times in the past week and now I've called it quits for a while. I started the scarf on a whim which is really cool except that I have a few projects to finish by Easter. So while I was knitting and frogging the scarf I was also thinking tick tock, Easter is just around the corner.
There were two problems with the scarf. One was the p2sso that I couldn't find a definition for in the Interweave Knits magazine that had the pattern. I got an explanation from my friendly LYS but it still didn't turn out right. For the p2sso I was instructed to slip 2 stitches knitwise (individually) and then slip them over individually. But the pattern called for a slip 2 stitches right before that. So I think I was slipping a total of 4 stitches and then passing over only 2 which got me off pattern by two stitches. I'm not sure about this theory and I won't have an answer for a while since the project is hibernating.
The second problem was that I picked out lovely yarn but then changed my mind about the colors of one of them. I'll make a decision about that later.
I'll post again soon about the Easter knitting projects I've started.

What a Wednesday

2009-02-25T20:25:00.003-06:00

I had a lovely surprise in my mail today. My fellow knitting bloggers Domie's Mom and Lara have given me the Kreativ Blogger award. A big thank you to both of them! And now I'm going to share the joy.

The rules are

1. copy the Kreativ Blogger award to your blog

2. put a link to the person from whom you received the award

3. nominate 8 other blogs

4. and link to them

5. then leave a message on the blogs you nominated

It's going to be hard to pick just 8 but I'm going to try. And if I've left you out it doesn't mean I don't love your blog too!

1. Right Out Loud

2. The Crazy Lady and the Baker Man

4. Lunaticraft

8. Tante J

Weekly unravelling

2009-02-24T21:43:00.004-06:00

What's got my yarn unravelled this week? The lovely Calorimetry that I completed last night that doesn't fit. Nope, I didn't read anyone else's blog posts about sizing. Shame on me! I'm a blogger and I didn't read anyone else's blog before I cast on. Okay maybe I'm over reacting a little. The finished measurements are 21 by 7.5 inches. My husband says it's still cute even if it hangs off the back of my head with a hint of a ruffle.

But I'm going to cast on again. This time around I will make some adjustments. Calorimetry I was almost 6 inches too long. And since I knit 5 stitches an inch I will cast on 30 fewer stitches for number II. This should also make it less wide. I'm sticking to my "I knit mistakes so you don't have to" motto. I'm going to post pictures of Calorimetry I and Calorimetry II so you can see the before and after side by side. I hope this helps you.

I'm still here

2009-02-18T21:28:00.002-06:00

You may be asking yourself where the heck has this girl gone? Has she forgotten that she's supposed to be a blogger? or maybe her pile of dirty laundry finally consumed her in the middle of the night? or better yet has she lost all of her knitting needles in the teensy weensy craft corner of her itty bitty house?
The answers: nowhere exciting, no, not yet and thank goodness no!
I've actually been working on my first knitted design project. shhh, it's still a secret.

Where are my knitting needles?

2009-02-05T22:13:00.001-06:00

I'm hopelessly disorganized. I'm one of these people that is organized in a perfect world. I know what organization should look like I just have a problem achieving it. I criticize myself endlessly on this topic. And I answer myself by saying "Self, life is complicated" or "I'm busy" or "I'm creative". I think I have to have an intervention with myself. I am not organized. Just because I love the Container Store and all things related to organization it does not mean that I am an organized person. Okay, there, now I've done it.

You may ask what sparked this confession and self-intervention. I lost my knitting needles damn it! I had them in my hand one minute and they were gone off the face of the planet the next. And this has happened not once, not twice but at least a dozen times in the last few months. Knitting needles, knitting books, yarn for goodness sake! I'm fed up with myself. Help!

Olivia's Simple Baby Bib

2009-02-02T22:49:00.006-06:00

I made this bib from the Simple bib pattern and it was a very quick project. I enjoyed using one of my Grandma's vintage buttons. It's the first time I've used one since I inherited her collection and sewing kit this past year. It makes the bib extra special to me.

The yarn is from Blue Sky Alpaca. I'd like to knit the world a big fluffy blanket with their organic cotton. It is so soft and the color is so fresh. My color choice was inspired by a vase of hydrangeas that my mother has on her table. It reminded me of spring, Easter eggs and little girls' dresses.

Ruffly is done

2009-01-29T11:49:00.006-06:00

My Just Enough Ruffles scarf is complete and I'm so happy I could run around the house squeeling. A little like my daughter does when we mention the word "outside" (you'd think we keep her locked up in a closet). It is my first finished object of the new year and it is a success.
I love the Malabrigo merino yarn and once I figured out the short rows all was well.
So I've decided that I need to knit the scarf in another color. Because lime and blue just doesn't match all of my outfits. I have a couple skeins of some peach colored wool that I bought two years ago and have been stumped with what to use it for. Maybe this will be a good project. On the other hand I'd like to have this scarf in cotton, since winter doesn't last long in Austin. I'm currently enamored with Blue Sky Alpaca's dyed cotton so maybe I'll buy some of that.
And since I'm on a roll with short rows I've decided to do the Calorimetry ear warmer. I've had my eye on it for a while. It will be perfect for our chilly (but not too cold) winters.

Blocking

2009-01-27T22:57:00.003-06:00

I took my Just Enough Ruffles scarf off the needles a few nights ago and I have to admit I'm a little frightened to block it. I thought I could avoid the blocking process. I wore the scarf to work today (it's very cold in our office so I was able to wear it all day long) but the it didn't drape nicely; it curled onto itself and the stockinette section was basically lost in the curl. So I've decided to give blocking a try for the first time. I looked for some references and knitty was there for me with a nice article. Check it out. I'm very tired but I'm going to block this tonight and will let you all know how it looks when it dries.

Easy baby bib patterns for knitters

2009-01-20T23:39:00.004-06:00

Third on my list of fun and easy things to knit is the baby bib. Fancy bibs are nice but parents and babies need lots of sacrificial bibs for every day use. You know those days when you don't have the energy to keep them from slinging food all over themselves and you say "Go for it sweetie, I'm not going to stop you today." I have those days a lot.

Bibs that secure with velcro are nice but my daughter pulls them apart about as easily and quickly as she pulls a barrette out of her hair. So here are two free easy bib patterns; one uses an I chord tie and the other a button hole. If you prefer velcro it should be easy to adapt the patterns.
The Simple baby bib uses a yarn over to create a button hole.
The Garter stitch bib pattern makes the ties out of I chord.

Yarn tutorial

2009-01-16T23:42:00.004-06:00

I found a great site with loads of information and free patterns. One of the tutorials discusses ply and yarn which I thought might help explain why some yarns split and others don't. Take a look. And if you have some more info please share.

2009-01-14T22:27:00.001-06:00

I wish I had an update on my ruffly scarf but sadly I don’t. I’ve had to stop knitting temporarily due to some crazy muscle spasms in my right arm. It all started a few weeks ago when I was home from the office for two weeks over the holiday. My right arm started getting achy and tired. Then it decided to complain while I knitted. I can understand it complaining while I scrub dried food off of a plate, but knitting?! Come on!
So what’s the deal? Apparently my desk job has turned me into a softy. No, not the cute kind that you find on etsy, I’m talking about the puny muscled kind. Clearly my right arm can’t withstand taking care of a 28 pound 19 month old toddler, laundry, dishes, dog walking and knitting for two weeks straight. Now I know why I go to work five days a week. I go to give my body a rest!
The doctor says I must give my arm a break. And treat it nicely. Massage, alternating ice and heat, lots of stretching. Then when the muscles are back to their usual amount of tightness I’m to begin functional strength training. You know, the kind of training that helps you lift kids into car seats without crumpling over in pain. Let’s just hope it all works and I can avoid physical therapy.

2009-01-12T21:11:00.005-06:00

The second item on my list of fun things to knit when you live in a warm climate is the washcloth. I've heard people scoff at the idea of knitting one. Why work hard on something as small and simple as a cloth that no one will ever see you wear?
I have many reasons to knit washcloths. They are quick to knit which is a very nice change from longer projects like baby blankets. They are a nice way to test your new skills. They are heavenly in the bath. It was a washcloth that taught me that garter stitch gives knit fabric a wonderfully fluffy, scrunchy texture (especially nice with soap lathered all over it). And finally gifting them is a wonderful way to say you care and to give someone a little bit of luxury.
Here are a few free wash cloth patterns that I think you might enjoy.
Buttercup Baby Washcloth
Cotton Chenille Wash Cloth
Wedding Washcloths

2009-01-07T21:43:00.007-06:00

I am a person of many lists. Without them I spend the day with a quizzical look fixed to my face; I walk quickly through the halls and don't engage people in conversation. I am afraid to lose what's in my head. People comment on how serious I am. It's not really the case, I'm just remembering.
I live in a warmer climate and when I became a knitter I wondered "What can I knit?". I always associated knitting with blankets and sweaters. While I was happy at learning a hobby that I had always dreamt of doing, I was a little disappointed at the idea of having a closet overflowing with sweaters and not enough cold months in which to wear them.
So I decided to help other disappointed warm climate, new knitters by compiling a list of project ideas.
My first item is the purse. Here are a few free patterns of purses that involve beginner level techniques.
The Ultra Mega Chunky Bag
Make it Yours Purse
Book Purse
Felt Purse with Clutch Handle
Please share your easy purse projects or comment on any of the above!

The list is to be continued.

Save handmade toys

2009-01-06T11:14:00.001-06:00

Update on the Just Enough Ruffles scarf

2009-01-05T12:48:00.002-06:00

I'm going to rip back to the first wrapped row. Why?
I'd like to just say "I did the short rows incorrectly" and leave it at that. But since my blog is all about discovering my own mistakes, and hopefully helping other people to avoid them, I must be honest.
Yes I did the short rows incorrectly, but how? It's that word "previously" before "wrapped stitch" in the Short Row 3 and 4 of the Shape Curve section that I didn't pay attention to. What finally clued me into my mistake? I wasn't decreasing; there was no curve.
I think the tag-line for my blog should be "I knit mistakes so you don't have to." Above is a picture of my rectangular disaster soon.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T20:53:00.000-06:00

My first post of 2009. I haven't spent a whole lot of time thinking about today beyond planning to take down my Christmas tree and knitting my scarf designed by Cosmic Pluto. I'm very excited about this project. I haven't knit anything for myself since this past summer's sweater. I've been wearing a lot of scarves at work the past few months because my new desk is next to a window and it's very cold. I'm anxious to have a new one to add to my wardrobe.
I worked on the gauge swatch a few nights ago. I chose size 9 bamboo 29 inch circular needles for my first attempt at the swatch. I wasn't even sure if I could get 200 stitches on 29 inch needles. The swatch worked out and I was ready to cast on. All of the stitches fit and somehow I managed to miscount and get 210 stitches, knit the first row and then caught my mistake. So I did the cast on again today and knit the first six rows.
I like to cast on about as much as I like to wash my daughter's dirty diapers. The thought of casting on 200 stitches was enough to make me procrastinate a few days. Counting stitches on circular needles that twist onto themselves is not fun. Now it's almost the end of my "vacation" and I still don't have my new scarf.
To try to make the counting easier on myself I decided to use a stitch marker every 10 stitches. This turned out to be a mess. I used hair ties because I couldn't find my stitch markers and a hair tie every 10 stitches was a visual distraction and actually made the counting more difficult. So that's how I cast on 210 instead of 200. The second time around I still used the hair ties (I still couldn't find my stitch markers) but I only used one every 50 stitches.
Happy 2009 everyone.

Take the time to do a gauge swatch

2008-12-26T22:29:00.005-06:00

Skipping the gauge swatch is a bad idea for most projects.

I was in a rush to knit the Baby Hat by Leigh Radford. It had been sitting in my mental queue for a long time. For months I would flip through the One Skein book just before falling asleep, picking out all of the patterns that I was most anxious to try. The Baby Hat was high on that list. And I promised myself I would start it as soon as I finished some other projects (daugher's Christmas stocking, husband's hat, the list seemed Oh so long).
Finally it was time to start the hat (not that I'd finished those other projects, but hey, who cares?). I picked the same yarn listed in the pattern but in a beautiful blue to enhance my daughter's eyes. When I measured my baby's head her's measured one inch larger than the largest hat's size. Back to the yarn shop to ask their advice. Would this hat fit my baby's head if the finished product was an inch smaller than her head? Yes, they said go ahead and start knitting.
I figured that I wouldn't bother myself about the gauge swatch since I'm a loose knitter and the largest size of the hat might already be a little too tight for my daughter right? So I'd might as well not worry about it. That's how I justified my "just get started right away" attitude. And that was my downfall!
I knit and re-knit the lace section many times. (More on that in another post, but for now see previous post about small projects not always being equivalent to easy projects.) And then I made it to the end. I pulled the yarn through the last stitch and quickly put it on my babe's head. The color was lovely, but the hat sat low on her neck and covered her eyebrows. When I showed my husband he said "Can you just fold up the brim?". It now has a permanent home in my drawer of mis-matched socks and other odds and ends.
I still have plans to knit this hat, version II. I even have the yarn stashed in my drawer. I'll be sure to update here when I've started it.

Research your project

2008-12-26T22:26:00.001-06:00

Small projects are not necessarily easy projects. This seems obvious but I've caught myself on numerous occassions equating small projects with beginner level skills. And I've gotten into a few sticky situations from this mistaken thinking.

The project on which I learned this lesson was Leigh Radford's Petal Bib from the One Skein book. The book's photography is luscious, the yarn and colors she uses make me want to nibble on rich sweets. I was totally smitten with the bibs and I just had to have one in every color of the rainbow.

Then there was a problem. The pattern called for short rows. I didn't know how to use short rows for shaping. I didn't even know what short rows were or that they could be used for shaping. I remember reading something about people getting through many years of knitting withough using short rows. I felt a little silly for being so unneccesarily adventurous with my pattern choice. I learned how to do them but most importantly I would like to think that I learned to research a project before I commit to it.

Find the right yarn for the project

2008-12-26T22:23:00.002-06:00

Choose the correct yarn.

If your pattern calls for blocking to get the project to a certain size, make sure you use yarn that can be blocked.

Which yarns can be blocked?

I've been told that natural fibers can be blocked in varying degrees. Wool (at least 85%) is the fiber that provides the best results when blocked.

I learned this lesson while working on my daughter's baby blanket from the Stitch n Bitch book. It was my third knitting project and my largest. When I went to the yarn shop to buy yarn I looked at the brand called for in the pattern. It was beautiful and I wanted it very badly, but it was also very expensive and needed to have two strands of yarn worked together which doubled the price. So I asked my helpful merchant to recommend another yarn. She took me to a row of shelves with nice soft yarn that she knew many other people had used for this very project. And bonus! it came in a beautiful array of colors. I picked my color (aubergine to go with chocolate and lavendar shades my husband and I picked for our daughter's room) and was content knowing that this yarn would be perfect. After all, a professional helped me to pick it out and many other people made this very pattern with it.

Many, many months later I finished the blanket and I was so proud. I looked at the pattern for the instructions on finishing. It called for blocking the blanket to get it to the size of x by x. So I started researching blocking. I read a few of the books in my personal library and they seemed to refer to wool yarn when they discussed blocking. Hm, does it have to be wool to be blocked? I tried doing some more research but couldn't find any direct answer. So I asked my friend. Yes, the yarn needed to be at least 85% wool to be blocked. I looked at my yarn label and it was only 75% wool (approximately). Oh I was so upset. I was really counting on the blocking process to not only stretch my blanket to the correct size but also to even out the edges and make it look more polished.

I still love the blanket and most importantly my daughter loves it. And I was able to get some of the stitches evened out with washing. But had I known, I would have selected yarn that was able to be blocked.

Yarn splits

2008-12-26T22:22:00.001-06:00

Choose yarn that won’t split.

I bought some yarn on sale at a hobby store and picked it mainly for it’s color (tangerine for my sister who was into tangerine at the time). When I started knitting the scarf with it I discovered that it would be a painfully long experience. The yarn split easily making it hard to make a stitch without missing part of the yarn. I had to spend lots of time going back to fix stitches.

How do I know if yarn will split?

In my experience (which is not very extensive) if I hold the yarn in my fingers and squeeze it and the strands separate easily, it will split easily. However some yarn that I've used didn't split in my hands, it split when I started knitting with it.

The only common attribute of the two yarns is that they didn't seem to be twisted very tightly. In other words they didn't have one yarn wrapped tightly around the other fiber. I'm sure there are plenty of experienced knitters and fiber artists out there that can explain this much better than I, so I have included a picture of two yarns I've used - one that split easily and one that didn't. I hope this helps with your next trip to the yarn shop.

My first knitting project

2008-12-26T22:18:00.002-06:00

The Umbilical cord hat from Debbie Stoller's book Stitch n Bitch was my first knitting project. I was pregnant with my daughter and my friend gave me a few lessons on how to cast on, knit stockinette stitch and how to knit in the round. She convinced me that I could knit a hat before my daughter's birth. I was skeptical.

The hardest lesson I learned during this project was that if I make a mistake, I should strongly consider ripping out my work to start again. At that time I didn't know how to un-knit or "tink" so I ripped out and restarted the hat many times. It was frustrating and I felt more anxious as my baby got bigger. However with small projects it could be well worth it to start over.

And yes, I finished the hat before my daughter was born. Here is a picture of her in the hat.